Arm the moderate Syrian rebels, they said. Then we’ll be able to counter ISIL effectively, they said. Well, say goodbye to the Free Syrian Army as an American ally. “John Allen, the retired Marine general in charge of coordinating the U.S.-led coalition’s response to the Islamic State, confirmed Wednesday what Syrian rebel commanders have complained about for months: that the United States is ditching the old Free Syrian Army and building its own local ground force to use primarily in the fight against the Islamist extremists,” reports Stars and Stripes. The reasons are simple and entirely predictable. The FSA suffered from “a lack of cohesion, uneven fighting skills and frequent battlefield coordination with the al-Qaida loyalists of the Nusra Front.” The Obama administration is going to have a tough time explaining how, without American boots on the ground, we’re going to select, form and train an army to oppose ISIL in Syria. More…